Thursday, May 4, 2017

Russia’s Long-Haul Truckers Make Plans for New Labor Actions

Paul
Goble

Staunton, May 4 – Even as Moscow
outlets suggest that the truckers’ strike has collapsed, that it was organized
by American agents, and that truckers are now rushing to sign up for the Plato
system, regional media report not only that the truckers are not signing up
everywhere but that they are continuing to organize with two major meetings
planned for tomorrow and Sunday.

In trying to make the case that the
long-haul truckers’ strike has collapsed and will not resume, Moscow media are
suggesting that the truckers are lining up to sign on to the Plato system they
had protested against. But regional reports show that while that may be true in
some places, it isn’t in others (regnum.ru/news/economy/2271291.html).

In some respects, now that Moscow
officials are talking about the strike, they are becoming more hyperbolic even
as they argue that the strike is dying out. One Duma member, for example,
blamed American agents for the strike, a position that will do nothing to
improve relations between the truckers and the powers that be (an-crimea.ru/page/news/155260).

Many truckers have gone home from
the parking areas where they had assembled earlier, but that likely has more to
do with the May holidays than it does with any decline in their anger. Indeed,
truckers are going ahead with plans for a regional congress in Sakha on Friday
(runews24.ru/yakutsk/03/05/2017/95dfc86eeff4dd0cc49e5401d71e3d97)
and for a protest march in Chuvashia on Sunday (pg12.ru/news/29697).